Maxine Waters GOES Off On Her Own Senate Leader; This is Brilliant (VIDEO)

Maxine Waters is easily one of the most honest people — if not the most honest person — sitting in the United States Congress right now. She is the only one who is telling the truth about Donald Trump and his criminal administration, rather than playing politics as those incompetent authoritarians burn the nation to the ground. Of course, the headlines over the last week or so have been regarding the harassment of Trump Administration officials in public — most notably Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Immigration Policy Adviser Stephen Miller, and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

True to form, at a rally in Los Angeles, Congresswoman Waters — or Auntie Maxine as she is affectionately called — told her supporters not to let the Trump Cabinet officials have a moment’s peace so long as they continue to support these corrupt and inhumane policies. Well, of course, that had people on both sides of the aisle wringing their hands, as the Congresswoman’s words were twisted into sound bites to make it look like she was calling for something other than peaceful protest, which, of course, she was not.

While appearing on MSNBC’s AM Joy, Rep. Waters had a chance to respond to criticism from her own Democratic colleagues on the matter. Host Joy Reid said to her:

You had the leadership of the Democratic Party, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) issuing a statement criticizing you and this is Sen. Chuck Schumer.”

The show then cut to a clip of Schumer saying the following of Waters’ rally remarks:

I strongly disagree with those who advocate harassing folks if they don’t agree with you. If you disagree with a politician, organize your fellow citizens to action and vote them out of office. No one should call for the harassment of political opponents. That’s not right, that’s not American.”

That’s when our formidable Auntie Maxine showed that she is unafraid to stand up to anyone, no matter which side of the aisle they come from, and absolutely scorched Chuck Schumer for refusing to back her up. First, Reid asked her how she felt about what Schumer, who is in the Senate while Waters is in the House, did:

Were you surprised to have the leadership of your own party come out and call you un-American?”

Rep. Waters responded:

You know, I was surprised at Chuck Schumer, you know reached into the other house to do that.”

“I’ve not quite seen that done before. But one of the things I recognize, being an elected official, is in the final analysis, you know, leadership like Chuck Schumer’s will do anything that they think is necessary to protect their leadership. And so what I have to do is not focus on them. I’ve got to keep the focus on the children and the fact that this administration is endangering children in the worst kind of way.”

Of course, Rep. Waters is right. This is a time for choosing. We are in a fight for the soul of this nation. Do we want to be that shining city on the hill, that beacon of hope that we have been to the rest of the world for so long, or do we want to be a cruel authoritarian state that cares not for anyone, that is mired in bigotry from top to bottom, that the world is appalled at?

This is a time for truth, not politics, and Maxine Waters is telling the truth as it needs to be told. It’s too bad the leadership cannot do the same.

Watch below:

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Featured image via screen capture

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Written by Shannon Barber

Shannon Barber is a self- described queer feminist and activist for racial equality, LGBT rights, women’s rights, and secular rights in America. She is a lifelong lover of words, though her educational background is in computer science. She currently writes for 2 liberal websites, and keeps her own humor blog for lesbians. She hopes to change the world, one mind at a time.